There are a variety of methods for heating fluid. One method involves the user of an electrically charged bare wire to heat fluids passing over the bare wire. As fluid in this method is passed directly over the bare wire itself, the water is heated at an extremely high rate. However, bare wire elements are susceptible to damage when dry fired or operated under low pressure. In other words, fluid must be continually present and flowing using bare wires systems as the presence of air gaps or stagnant water for a period of time can damage the bare wire and associated heating system due to overheating.
To detect overheating, many systems use mechanical thermostats to identify the temperature inside of a heating chamber. However, this approach is limited by the time it takes for heat to transfer through all materials within the heating system especially with the presence of stagnant water or gas pockets. This lengthened reaction time significantly increases the chances of damage to the heating unit and instability to the system as a whole.